I've recently become more aware of the walk up interfaces which have become more and more common in our everyday lives. Some are quite good, while others astonish me that someone actually believes that what they have created will perform the task at hand. Walk ups have become more common, checking in a the airport, at the grocery store, at Home Depot, at the post office, and we will only continue to see more and more of them. The first walk up I'm going to write about is a particularly poor one, the $1 DVD rental machine at my local grocery store.

I love what this machine promises a new DVD release for $1 a day. Attempting to rent a DVD from this machine was one of the worst experiences I've had using an automated system like this. It is one of the worst interfaces I've used ever. The machine is shaped similar to a refrigerator, a box about six feet tall. There is a screen about head height, recessed in to the front of the unit. The primary method for browsing the DVD collection, selecting one and renting it is done through the four buttons directly below where the screen is recessed (see photo). This is the first major flaw in the system. The four buttons all point up and correspond to four options on the screen. The main problem with this is that the buttons always point up to the active selection on the screen. In order to move the selection around, say, to move through the list of movies, you literally find yourself pressing an up button to move the cursor down!

The selection process, and the transaction is controlled through these wacky up buttons that move the selection, in just about every direction. Besides the obvious disconnect of an up button moving the selection down there is a physical disconnect too. Because the buttons are on the front of the machine and the selections are on the recessed screen, there is a physical disconnect that occurs as well. Because the screen is recessed there is physical space between what your doing and what is happening on the screen.

But nonetheless, I was able to fumble through the process, and with a small line of people now standing behind me, the machine spit out my DVD and I was on my way. I watched the DVD that night and gloated in the fact that it was only costing me a dollar. The next day when I went to return the DVD the fun continued.

In order to return a DVD, the machine requires that you insert a credit card. This seemed strange. I had to insert a credit card to begin the process. It knew what DVD I had taken and since each DVD has a bar code why does it need my credit card again. This unnecessary step prevents someone form dropping of a DVD for you, without having your credit card. And while it is true that you may be charged and additional dollar if you keep it another day, the system has all my information, just let me know it late and that I will be charged. I have a sneaking suspicion that the system was somehow built with a credit card initiating all processes and literally can not funtion with first inserting a credit card.

I put in my card and used the goofy buttons to navigate to the return option (and I'm not even going to discuss task flow analysis but let's just say the screen flow in relation to the task at hand is horrible too). A little door opened up where the DVD was originally dispensed. I popped it back in, it spit it back out. So I turned it around and popped it back in and it spit it out. I stood there literally scratching my head. I looked closer. In ten point type next to the door reads a paragraph of text describing how to position the bar code on the DVD so the machine will accept it. Ah ha! Success. Later I came to thinking about this experience and how a simple picture or diagram of the DVD, positioned correctly, adjacent to the door would have saved me and many others time and frustration. There is a reason why they have the little picture of the credit card next to the card reader at the gas pump and not a paragraph of text explaining how to properly insert the card. When you're standing there, you see the little picture of the card and you realize that you have a card too. Intuitively you want to make the card in your hand look like the one in the picture because you know it what the system wants you to do. Intuitive thought can be meaningful and can even facilitate tasks we're trying to achieve. I just wish the makers of the DVD rental system had considered it's value.